Maen-y-Parc 'B' and 'C'

Standing Stones

Maen-y-Parc 'B' and 'C' (Gate Standing Stones) (Standing Stones) on The Modern Antiquarian, the UK & Ireland's most popular megalithic community website. 1 image, 3 fieldnotes, plus information on many more ancient sites nearby and across the UK & Ireland.

Images (click to view fullsize)

Fieldnotes

'Visited' 10.10.10
When I say visited I mean to say tried to find!
I walked up and down the tall hedgerows, along the lane and along the fields.
Unfortunately I could see no trace of these stones, despite several clambers up the hedgerow at various places. I think you need to visit this area to realise how a 6ft high standing stone can disappear in a hedge. I have never been anywhere where the hedgerows are as tall as they are all around this part of Wales.

After some pacing about with the map in the deserted high-banked country lane, I finally spotted the top of a stone hiding under a hawthorn bush, and practically built into the bank. "Here, Rupe, if I give you a bunk-up, can you see what that stone looks like?" (Key element of any megarak's kit: one small boy with a willingness to try stupid things). Rupert scampered along the six-foot high bank, and peered into the field.

Jane and I scrambled up after him, and peered through the rusty barbed wire. It was quite a handsome stone, about six feet tall, patterned with lichens and moss, and very snug under its hawthorn bush. A nice juxtaposition, actually.

So it was all three of us were balancing precariously on a foot wide bank, Jane taking pictures of Rupert and me pointing at the stone and grinning maniacally. I just prayed a tractor didn't coming bowling round the corner, or for that matter, the woman on the horse. Don't think she'd have been terribly impressed. It was probably at this moment in time I realised I had gained entry to the World of Anoraks . . .

The fallen Maen-y-Parc stones are bit hard to find… One stone is only a 50 or 60 metres away from Maen-y-Parc 'A' so hidden as to be imperceptible. Now firmly integrated into the hedge/field/lane boundary and hidden under a hawthorn bush, my son Rupert noticed the top of it just peeping up.

Suddenly it became easy to see how a 6 foot tall menhir could become 'lost'.

Miscellaneous

The description in the NMR for Maen-y-Parc (available through Coflein) includes three stones, imaginatively labelled A, B and C:

Heights are between 1.6 - 2.3m. B and C are built into field walls.
Local placename, Clyn Saith Maen, refers to seven standing stones.

Collectively all three stone appear to be called the 'Gate Standing Stones', presumably after the farm to the south. The eight figure grid reference given for Maen-y-Parc 'B' is SN11173022 and for Maen-y-Parc 'C' is SN11173020.